In Moscow's Shadows 94: What do you do with a problem like Medvedev?
Spinning off from a recent piece for the Spectator, I look at Dmitri Medvedev's decline and fall, from technocratic liberal hope to peddler of toxic anti-Western vitriol, and what this tells us about ...
26 Mar 202346min
In Moscow's Shadows 93: Oligarchs and Judges
Isn't it time to scrap the term 'oligarch'? In Russia - as perhaps, not in Ukraine - the time when rich people able to assert power because of their wealth (as opposed to getting wealthy because of th...
19 Mar 202344min
In Moscow's Shadows 92: Everyone's Got an Agenda: Hungary, China, Neo-Nazis, Kadyrov, Anime Fans...
Why did Budapest 2023 remind me of Moscow 2007? Are Hungary or China 'pro-Russia'? What can we read into pro-Ukrainian neo-Nazi incursions into Russia and Kadyrov's claims that he wants to set up a me...
5 Mar 202355min
In Moscow's Shadows 91: Russian Fantasies - Putin's address to the nation and the lessons from Russian science fiction
Putin has finally set a date for his annual address to the Federal Assembly, 21 February. He will likely try to tread the balance between scaring and reassuring his audience, but it takes place at a t...
11 Feb 202353min
In Moscow's Shadows 90: A Murder in Donbas Evokes the 90s and Putin Cosplays the 40s
The apparent hit on a Russian rightist, propagandist, and self-styled "swindler and mercenary" raises a range of questions about coordination in the Russian forces, the role of Evgeny Prigozhin and R...
5 Feb 202350min
In Moscow's Shadows 89: Tanks, the New Patriotic War and the Strelkov-Prigozhin Spat
What does it mean that Western-designed tanks will now be supplied to Ukraine, and what - if any - potential responses does Putin have? At the very least, it will be used to hammer home the new notion...
29 Jan 202357min
In Moscow's Shadows 88: Enter Gerasimov
So what might it mean for Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov to be made the new overall commander of Russian operations in Ukraine? I suspect Putin is impatient for some kind of victory - and if Ger...
12 Jan 202347min
In Moscow's Shadows 87: War, Politics and Putin's New Year's Address
A collection of topics: Putin's rather bellicose New Year Address and what to make of it, the limits of Russian politics, what to make of Medvedev's and Prigozhin's bizarre statements, and some good n...
1 Jan 202354min
